Lee Buchheit on the Icesave agreement
Lee Buchheit who lead the Icelandic Icesave negotiation team was on Ruv, the Icelandic State Broadcaster, on Thursday, introducing the Icesave agreement. You can watch it here. (After a short introduction in Icelandic the interview starts and is in English.)
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A good interview. The interviewer asked the questions her audience would probably have put to Lee Bucheit, given the chance. As far as I can see, a better deal than this would hard to arrange. Going to court would not be a good idea for Iceland. The Icelandic regulator didn’t exactly do a good job, then there are the dodgy dealings among those running the banks, but most importantly the statement, for example, on the Landsbanki website, that deposits were guaranteed by the Icelandic Government. As it turned out they were, but only if the depositor was Icelandic.
Where Iceland would have a case is that the UK stepped in to guarantee all deposits by UK depositors – even where the deposits exceeded the previously guaranteed amounts. This surprised me at the time and seemed unreasonable. But weighing up the arguments I do not feel Iceland would prosper in court.
rod
13 Dec 10 at 1:47 pm
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